KFC 'caused brain damage'

2009-08-03 08:34

Sydney - An Australian couple are suing KFC on Monday, claiming their daughter became brain damaged and crippled after eating a chicken wrap tainted with salmonella.

Their lawyer told the New South Wales state Supreme Court in an opening statement there was no doubt that Monika Samaan, then 7, developed salmonella poisoning from a chicken wrap bought from a KFC outlet in Sydney in 2005.

"There is little or no doubt that chicken was reported by all scientists, at the time of these unhappy events occurring, as being the source of that salmonella," lawyer Anthony Bartley said.

Officials for KFC, which is operated by Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum Brands Inc, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The girl, now 11, attended court in a wheelchair. Bartley said she had acquired spastic quadriplegia and an intellectual disability since the poisoning.

Bartley said the court would hear "disturbing and quite unsettling" evidence about the practices in KFC kitchens during the trial.